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The Importance of Being Earnest

The Watermill Theatre

Reviewed – 27th May 2019

★★★★

“an inventive new take on an old favourite”

Should we care about ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’? Oscar Wilde’s best-known play about misplaced identities was written at the height of his fame. His brilliant wit shines in every scene and the piece features that line about a piece of left luggage that is probably as much quoted as ‘to be or not to be’.

The Watermill’s new production partly attempts to prove its relevance by setting the play in a contemporary apartment, which is all dull grey minimalism, and in the opening scene, decorated with a road traffic cone. It’s the kind of achingly trendy place that’s all concealed doors and cupboards, with a big Morris wallpaper feature wall, which in Sally Ferguson’s lighting design is cleverly lit to match the mood. At the start of the play the set seemed simply incongruous, lacking the glitz that might be expected of a London socialite’s pad. Weirdly, the cups are paper and the plates foil, a kind of knowing send-up that seemed just odd in the first half, but made perfect sense in the second when the play takes a surreal turn. The almost empty apartment does however come complete with a fully-liveried butler, played with glassy-eyed determination by the impressive Morgan Philpott. He begins and ends the show, as well as sustaining a crowd-pleasingly clever running gag throughout it that calls for the most impeccable timing.

So the scene is set for an inventive new take on an old favourite, as much beloved of amateur productions as it is of countless high profile cinema and stage versions. The lead, Algernon, is played by a splendidly gangling Peter Bray (RSC and the Globe). Wilde seems to have put most of himself into this ‘Bunburying’ young fop who gets some of the best lines. Bray more than rises to the challenge. As Jack, Benedict Salter is also excellent. In a splendid piece of direction by the very inventive Kate Budgen, Bray and Salter perform a kind of mad pas-de-deux to a Liszt piano concerto in a scene about muffins. ‘I can’t eat muffins in an agitated manner. The butter would probably get on my cuffs. One should always eat muffins quite calmly. It is the only way to eat them’. Much has been written about the gay sub-text, in a play which was written when to be ‘earnest’ was to be gay. What with the Bunburying and cucumbers for ready money, it certainly doesn’t lack in innuendo, and this was nicely handled in this production.

Both young men and their female opposite numbers, Gwendolen (Claudia Jolly) and Cecily (Charlotte Beaumont), are splendidly dressed in period costumes. Wilde’s young women may be trapped in a suffocating Victorian system where a woman’s marriage is more about money than love, but his characters shine in these interpretations. Charlotte Beaumont in particular has a kind of winningly mad insistence, that in the second half almost took the play into Lewis Carroll territory.

And what of Lady Bracknell’s ‘handbag’ line, so famously delivered with ringing disdain by Edith Evans, then whispered by Maggie Smith in a role also played by Judi Dench and even David Suchet? Connie Walker certainly brings the ‘gorgon’ to life in her commanding interpretation. Wendy Nottingham makes a suitably dowdy Miss Prism, and Jim Creighton is a satisfying Dr Chasuble.

‘To be born, or at any rate bred, in a hand-bag, whether it had handles or not, seems to me to display a contempt for the ordinary decencies of modern life that reminds one of the worst excesses of the French Revolution’. Just for lines like this, ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ is more than worth the price of a ticket. This fresh and inventive new production at the Watermill makes it more than doubly so.

Reviewed by David Woodward

Photography by Philip Tull

The Importance of Being Earnest

The Watermill Theatre until 29th June

The Watermill Theatre – winner of our 2018 Awards – Best Regional Theatre

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:

The Rivals | ★★★★★ | March 2018

Burke & Hare | ★★★★ | April 2018

A Midsummer Night’s Dream | ★★★★ | May 2018

Trial by Laughter | ★★★★ | September 2018

Jane Eyre | ★★★★ | October 2018

Robin Hood | ★★★★ | December 2018

Murder For Two | ★★★★ | February 2019

Click here to see more of our latest reviews on thespyinthestalls.com

★★★

“Though it may be a bit rough, this show is the sort of creative flare that keeps London theatre exciting”

Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest is a comedy of manners set in London during the 1890s. In their adaptation, LKT Productions have jumped the play one hundred years forward and two hundred miles north, to a York council estate in the 1990s. It’s the same playtext transposed to a world completely opposite to the one it was intended for.

Placing words meant for Victorian aristocrats in modern working-class mouths is a fascinating experiment by directors Luke Adamson and Toby Hampton. Whether it works or not is debatable. On the one hand, hearing Wilde’s grandiose lines in northern accents was fresh and fun. Designer Rachael Ryan has done first-rate work creating an aesthetic completely counter to the original: the set involves graffitied walls and plastic patio furniture. The kiddie pool is a great touch. The costumes feature animal prints, gold leggings, bum bags, and very large hoop earrings.

On the other hand, most of the play doesn’t make sense in a working-class scenario. Wilde’s play is specifically, explicitly, a satire of upper-class society. Adamson and Hampton make slight alterations in attempt to adjust the context, but they’re fighting the script at every turn. A clever choice to make ‘cucumber sandwiches’ slang for cocaine saves one particular exchange. A few word substitutions (e.g. bus stop instead of carriage) save others. But ultimately it’s a losing fight. The servants don’t make sense – the attempt to pass them off as flatmates doesn’t work. Jokes about dinner parties don’t fit. The fact that Gwendolyn’s parents are ‘Lord’ and ‘Lady’ is something the production seems to shrug at. The play is caught between a genuine desire for its characters to be working class, and surrendering to an alternate universe where lords and ladies wear joggers and speak in thick Yorkshire accents.

Despite the muddled world, the characters themselves relocate surprisingly well to a council estate. Heather Dutton as Gwendolyn and Millie Gaston as Cecily shine in particular. Translating the refined but fierce Gwendolyn to Dutton’s ‘won’t-take-shit’, ‘will-fight-you’ Gwendolyn works brilliantly. Gaston, in scrunchie and tracksuit, wonderfully brings out the snarky teenager in Cecily. There’s a lot that’s really smart about this wild reimagining.

The comedy though wasn’t quite at standard. I’ve witnessed certain lines take down the house in previous performances that simply passed by in this one. Lady Bracknell (Kitty Martin) has some of the funniest lines in the play, but many of them failed to land. There’s also an unfortunate choice to keep Lane and Merriman (both James King) in the scenes as silent background comedy. King’s physical jokes distract from the words, which is a shame, because King stuffing newspaper in his ears will never be as funny as Wilde’s lines.

LKT deserve all the props for their boldness in turning Wilde’s classic upside-down. Though it may be a bit rough, this show is the sort of creative flare that keeps London theatre exciting.

Reviewed by Addison Waite

Photography by Cam Harle

The Watermill Theatre

Reviewed – 27th May 2019

★★★★

“an inventive new take on an old favourite”

Reviewed by David Woodward

Photography by Philip Tull

The Importance of Being Earnest

The Watermill Theatre until 29th June

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:

Drayton Arms Theatre

Reviewed – 21st February 2019

★★★

“Though it may be a bit rough, this show is the sort of creative flare that keeps London theatre exciting”

LKT deserve all the props for their boldness in turning Wilde’s classic upside-down. Though it may be a bit rough, this show is the sort of creative flare that keeps London theatre exciting.

Reviewed by Addison Waite

Photography by Cam Harle

Th’Importance of Bein’ Earnest

Drayton Arms Theatre until 23rd February

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue: